1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a device for decorating objects, in particular containers, and the relative procedure.
2. Background Art
Various procedures are used to decorate, in particular but not exclusively, containers regardless of the shape of said containers. A first procedure is currently used which consists in the screen printing technique: in this decoration system the liquid ink is forced, by means of a spatula or similar, to pass through the thickness of an element, called a mesh, the surface of said mesh having portions which are blocked and others which are not. By alternating these blocked portions as necessary, the passage of the ink through the mesh is controlled and only permitted through clearly and intentionally defined areas of the said mesh, resulting in the decoration wanted.
A further commonly known procedure consists in the offset printing technique, which consists in a derivation of lithographic printing technique. Like in screen-printing, this procedure also uses ink made liquid by means of the addition of suitable solvents.
The said offset printing technique uses zinc and aluminum plates onto which the images to be printed onto the object to be decorated is reproduced. The decorative image is produced on the surface to be decorated by means of a rubberized fabric.
A further commonly known procedure consists in the buffer technique, wherein the decorative image is produced on the object by means of a buffer and also in this case, like in the other two cases described, a liquid ink is used.
A still further procedure currently used is the so-called “heat transfer” method: in this procedure the decorative image is transferred onto a backing which has been already treated with a suitable detachable material, the material being technically pointed out with the word “release” and, the said transfer of the image being realized by means of either a screen printing procedure or a lithographic procedure: the printing of the image onto the object to be decorated occurs by the said backing being pressed against the object with the backing being heated contemporaneously.
All the commonly known procedures just described have drawbacks, some typical of a given procedure, others common to all the procedures.
In particular, one drawback of the screen-printed technique consists in the limited accuracy of the print, which is a direct consequence of the minimal possible dimensions of the mesh, or more precisely the minimal possible surface dimensions of the holes in the surface of the said mesh.
A further drawback of the current screen-printing technique, which also limits the accuracy of the decoration, is due to the need for the colour to be deposited in the sequence, in particular in the four-colour printing technique, and even more so in the six-colour printing technique, the said following colour depositions generating a non-uniform thickness of the decorative print.
A drawback which is common to the screen-printing, offset printing and the buffer procedures is the need to make the ink deposited on the object to be decorated dry as in all three cited procedures the ink used must be in a liquid state. This drawback leads to an increase in the production times and an increase in the decoration costs.
A first drawback common to all printing systems described earlier consists in the difficulty involved in the production of colour shading. This difficulty derives, in general, from the complexity of the plate regulation and, in the particular case of screen-printing, from the aforesaid limited surface dimensions that are possible for the holes in the mesh surface.
A second drawback common to all the printing systems described earlier is the complexity and the high cost of the preparation of the plates, this drawback generating, as a consequence, a further consistent need for a large quantity of objects to be decorated in order to amortize the production costs for the said plates.
A further drawback, which is common to all the printing systems described earlier, is the toxicity of the solvents used in both the ink dilution phase and also the equipment cleaning phase.
3. Disclosure of Invention
A first aim of the present invention is to produce decorations with a very high printing quality and accuracy with the resolution of the images depending only on the quality of the electrostatic printer used that is of a kind commonly available.
A further aim of the present invention consists in the possibility to obtain colour variations and shading to keep the thickness of the print almost unchanged, all of which are prerogatives which depend only on the quality of the electrostatic printer used.
A further aim of the present invention is to obtain a reproduction of the decoration using dry inks, with no solvents.
A still further aim of the present invention consists in the absence of drying stations for the decorations which have just been printed and also the elimination of the minimum production quantity.
All of the aims listed above can be achieved regardless of the geometric configuration of the surfaces to be decorated and regardless of the dimensions of the object having the aforesaid surface.
In particular, the device in question in the present invention for decorating objects, in particular, containers in general, is of the type comprising at least two reels, at least one of which is motorized, to which the ends of a non-stick film are connected, the non-stick film being made of a paper material or a polyester material covered with silicon on both surfaces, one of the surfaces acting as a support for a plurality of images, at least two tension rollers for the non-stick film at least one pressing element positioned between the tension rollers, and at least one heat generator which has a heat dispenser directed towards the non-stick film.
These and other characteristics will better emerge in the description that follows of a preferred embodiment illustrated, in the form of a non-limiting example, in the drawing plates attached, in which:
FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a device for the application of decorations wherein a jet of hot air is directed towards the surface of a non-stick film onto which is deposited a plurality of images to be reproduced onto objects with surfaces to be decorated around the circumference of the objects.
FIG. 2 shows the contents of the previous figure wherein the jet of hot air is directed towards the surface of the non-stick film opposite to that on which the images are deposited.
FIG. 3 shows the contents of FIG. 2 wherein the object has surfaces to be decorated that are flat in shape.